


Beatrix's Tale

by RosyPalms



Series: Tales of Forgotten Cycles [1]
Category: Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy
Genre: Gen, Magic, Memory Loss, Summoning, Swords & Sorcery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-08-01 02:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16276493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosyPalms/pseuds/RosyPalms
Summary: Robbed of her memories, Beatrix finds herself in an alien world, caught up in a conflict she has no stakes in. What does the war between the forces of Cosmos and Chaos have in store for her?





	1. Uneasiness

Beatrix stood at the edge of a platform that floated in an endless blue expanse. Behind her was what looked like the bulk of a castle while bits and pieces of it floated around on their own, or on separate platforms. She heaved a heavy sigh and brushed her hair from her face.

It was an odd place. It was alien, but for all she knew this could be a fragment of her home. She only remembered very little; her name, her skills with sword and magic hadn’t left her either, but beyond that there were only glimpses of another life. A life in a different realm, a life where she wasn’t at the mercy of fickle gods.

She had been summoned to this world by an entity called Chaos along with other warriors. They were to wage war against whomever another deity, called Cosmos, had summoned.

She didn’t like any of this. Bereft of her memories, she felt like a pawn in a cosmic game of chess, and to what end? To go home again? This was nothing more than a glorified hostage taking!

She shook her head. Whatever this world was, it seemed unstable. The blue expanse around her was riddled with portals to different places. She started walking around to see if any of the places beyond the portals jogged her memory.

As she walked across the grassy platforms, another warrior of Chaos crossed her path. The man was wearing golden armor and wielded a staff. Their eyes met. Beatrix disliked the way this self-proclaimed Emperor looked at her, and most other people for that matter. His gaze was cool and disdainful, as if everyone else were but dirt beneath his heel.

“Do you need something?”, Beatrix asked. He hadn’t averted his eyes and she refused to falter beneath his gaze. “I could ask the same of you. Our comrades are pursuing our enemies as we speak while you idle your time away”, the Emperor said. He spoke in a very well articulated manner. It made him sound pompous.

Beatrix didn’t say anything, she simply continued to stare down the king in yellow. He turned towards the blue expanse as he continued. “If it is guidance you seek, I can provide it. Swear fealty to me, and I shall show you the way. Although, you would need to find some new clothes; that coat of yours is an eyesore”, he said. His voice showed some genuine emotion for the first time, namely, disgust.

Beatrix wore a white sleeveless coat with a rose embroidered on its back. She didn’t remember if it carried any significance, but it certainly seemed to mean something to the Emperor. “I’d sooner serve a goblin”, she said and began walking away. “Leave me be. I’ll do my duty in due time”.

If the Emperor said anymore, she didn’t hear it. She wondered about something she had said. She had mentioned a goblin, but she couldn’t really say what that was. She stopped to think. After a while, she pictured a small humanoid monster, dressed in rags and wielding a knife. The image became more and more vivid, until Beatrix was certain that she had fought such creatures back home. She also seemed to recall that there was virtually nothing weaker than a goblin short of a child.

A child? An odd comparison. Beatrix didn’t know what to make of it, but she was satisfied with her unlocked memories, even if they were probably insignificant. One step at a time would take her all the way to the truth.

She walked further until she saw a portal leading into a desert. Something about it demanded Beatrix’s attention, so she stared into it for quite some time. An uncomfortable feeling took hold of her. A metallic smell reached her nostrils, along with the unmistakable aroma of smoke.

Fire and… what? _Blood_ , she thought. Her palms felt sweaty. She was growing nervous, but the glimpses into her life were too tantalizing to turn away from. She kept staring into the desert.

She had been to a desert before, she felt certain of that. She could practically feel the sand lashing at her skin, taste it, feel it between her teeth! A storm! There had been a storm; she braved it, but why? Beatrix closed her eyes and looked within. What had led her into that desert?

She saw the Emperor before her inner eye. She shook her head in annoyance. His sneer disappeared, and she thought about what happened before the desert excursion.

For a long time there was nothing, but eventually she felt like the air grew damp. The murmur of rain resounded in her ears, but the blue expanse around her was unmarred by clouds. Blood, fire, the clashing of steel on steel. Screams of fighters and innocents alike; and of children.

Beatrix opened her eyes. She was sweating. She brushed her hair aside and stared off into the distance. Those memories were distressing, even without the particulars. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know the details, but the uncomfortable feeling that she had been summoned as a warrior of Chaos for a reason started to take hold. Could it really be a coincidence that she was summoned on the same side as despicable monarchs such as that yellow Emperor?


	2. Stray

Beatrix had been stalking the halls of a strange building for a while. Sounds of combat reached her ears from afar and the pink crystalline walls shook from the forces at work. She approached the scene with a grim expression, prepared to participate in her first battle of this meaningless war, if need be.

She turned a corner and arrived in a large chamber. The high ceiling was dusky, the path in front of her wound up to an elevated platform, but most remarkable was a giant precipice that dominated the room. It appeared to be bottomless. Taking in the scenery, she almost forgot about the fighting.

Then, someone jumped down from the platform only a few feet away from her. It was a young man. He wore mostly blue clothes and his brown hair was shaggy. They shared surprised looks for a second. She didn’t recognize him, which meant…

“A warrior of Cosmos”. She was not impressed. He was covered in bruises and cuts and seemed out of breath.  
“Come on, another one of Chaos’ goons? Well, guess there’s no helping it”, he groaned and summoned a sword and shield. He assumed a fighting stance that looked a lot more shaky than it was supposed to, Beatrix reckoned. Her hand wandered to the hilt of her sword, but she stopped short. He was in no condition to fight. He was no threat.

She turned towards the giant pit and stared across, ignoring him.  
“Huh?”. The young man was confused and lowered his weapons for the moment. “Aren’t you going to fight me?”  
“If by _fight_ you mean drawing my sword and finishing you off where you stand in a single blow, then no. Killing insects is beneath me”, she said in a measured tone.  
“Hey, who are you calling an insect!?  
“You. Why waste my energy? I’m sure whoever roughed you up can finish the job just fine without my aid. That is, unless you take your chance and run”, Beatrix said.

After a moment of silence, a loud explosion could be heard coming from the direction the boy had come from. Beatrix didn’t flinch, but his eyes darted between her and the direction of the explosion nervously. Then he sighed and put his weapons away. He passed her warily.  
“Thank you”, Beatrix heard him say just as he turned the next corner and was gone from view.

As his hurried steps faded into silence, Beatrix felt nostalgic. The boy had reminded her of somebody; the entire scenario felt familiar. She tried to recall, but only the faintest glimpse of an event came to mind. She felt like she had covered someone’s retreat once. An enemy’s, and yet, it felt right. She couldn’t help but smile to herself.

Her expression hardened when the boy’s pursuer, her ally, entered the chamber. It was a hulking suit of sky blue armor. His face was entirely obscured by his helmet, and it made his voice sound hollow.  
“Did a little maggot pass by here?”, he asked.  
“I do not concern myself with pests, Exdeath”, Beatrix replied, coolly. Exdeath laughed to himself.  
“Could’ve fooled me”  
“Weren’t you hunting someone? Even a turtle could escape from someone as sluggish as you”, she said. Exdeath scoffed and teleported himself across the pit. She watched him disappear in a hallway and wondered if the boy would make his escape or if the armored wizard would catch him in the end.


	3. Protecting My Devotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrix fights her first battle of the war.

Beatrix’s wanderings led her back to the endless blue expanse. She expected to step onto lush green grass, but only found charred earth beneath her feet. Singular blade’s of grass were still smoldering. She drew her sword and proceeded cautiously. The fact that she couldn’t tell where the combatants were in the blue vastness worried her.

She approached the bulky keep on the central platform when something flashed before her eyes. Then the floor began to sink, and she along with it. She jumped off of the sinking platform onto safer footing and looked around. In the distance she saw what appeared to be a knight, riding a horse with too many legs. He wielded an impressive looking sword.

Had he cut the bridge? The notion seemed absurd, but something told Beatrix that it was so. She felt like she had seen the knight before. She felt as if such a feat was mere child’s play to him. These thoughts made her skin crawl, much like the memories of the desert had done, and she decided not to linger on them. There was something afoot and she didn’t want to get caught off guard.

The knight rode off into the distance, out of sight. That put Beatrix’s mind at ease at least a little bit, and she decided to investigate where he had come from. Just as she peered over the edge of the platform something shot upwards, making her recoil. It looked like a large serpent, but it had limbs and wings. Its fearsome maw seemed to spill fire like saliva and on its shoulder stood a young woman. Her green hair fluttered in the wind and her clothes matched it in color.

“You’re not the clown”, the green girl said. Beatrix agreed with the assessment, and the question of who the girl was talking about was answered right away. A high-pitched cackle sounded from above, and when they turned to towards it they saw a man in brightly colored clothes and with a painted face flying towards the dragon.

“I think you all just need to cool off for a moment”, he shrieked, pointed at the green girl, and sent a large chunk of ice flying toward her. The dragon lifted its wing to shield her from the projectile, which shattered into a thousand pieces upon impact. Some of the chunks came straight at Beatrix, but she swatted them away easily.

The clown was a man named Kefka, one of Beatrix’s allies. He floated there, laughing at his own jest, seemingly oblivious of the danger he was in. Beatrix hadn’t known what to make of him when they first met, but he seemed to live up to his costume. He was a fool.

The girl directed her attention towards him and held her hands out in an odd gesture for a moment. Then, with a sharp motion of her hands, lightning cracked just where Kefka floated. Or where he had been floating; he had managed to get out of the way just in time.

He stuck out his bum and slapped it a few times in mockery before flying away.  
“After him, oh great one!”, the girl shouted and the dragon gave chase. Beatrix stood there for a moment, sorting her thoughts. She heaved a heavy sigh and brushed her hair from her face. She supposed she should help Kefka against such a formidable opponent. However, keeping up with them would prove difficult while they were flying around, so she decided to gain a better vantage point and wait for an opportune moment to join the battle.

She scaled the central keep. To her surprise, someone else was there, looking over the edge of the roof. It was a man wearing a red coat with a massive sword at his side. She didn’t recognize him, meaning that…  
“Another warrior of Cosmos”, she said, drawing his attention. He turned around leisurely, shouldering his blade.  
“And you’re with the clown I take it. I’m not much use in an air battle like that, but if you want to join the fray, I’m afraid you’ll have to go through me”, he said matter-of-factly. This suited Beatrix just fine. She was more comfortable on the ground anyway.

“Fair enough. May I ask for your name?”, Beatrix said. The man looked at her over the lenses of his shades and raised an eyebrow. Then his lined face contorted into a wry smile.  
“Auron. Why?”  
“I’ve run into one of your allies before. He seemed weak, and I chose to let him run rather than strike him down. However, you seem like someone who can put up a fight, and I‘d like to know who I’ll test my mettle against”, she explained and assumed her fighting stance. “I am Beatrix”. Auron readied himself as well and the combatants began their approach.

Beatrix charged and delivered a few quick strikes to test his defenses. Auron used his broad blade like a shield and went unscathed. However, as soon as she let up, he staged a counter attack. His swings were powerful but easy to dodge. The problem was that he was pushing her towards the edge of the roof, limiting her freedom of movement.

When he had her where he wanted her he delivered a powerful horizontal swing. It was too low to duck under and shockingly fast compared to his previous swings, forcing Beatrix to block the strike. Steel clashed against steel and Beatrix was sent flying.

She nimbly landed on her feet, but was distressed when her sword felt oddly heavy in her hands. Auron’s swing had been strong, but a single impact such as that should not have been enough to wear her out so much. She cast Holy, if only to buy herself some time to recover. A sphere of light appeared above the man in red. Its light rapidly intensified until Auron was entirely engulfed in its incandescence.

Beatrix used the respite to take a deep breath and to flex her muscles. The strange numbness was leaving her limbs. When the light died away she felt ready to cross blades again.

Auron was leaning on his sword when he came into view again. Steam was rising from him and he was breathing hard.  
“Was that a little too much for you?”, Beatrix asked. In response, he straightened his back and took a swig from a large white bottle he wore on his belt.  
“I don’t think dulling your senses will help you win”, she said. Her voice had an edge to it that time. That he would drink during their duel insulted her.

However, Auron was doing no such thing. Once he had filled his mouth, he spat the contents of it onto his blade. He assumed a broad stance and dark energy started gathering around the blade. Beatrix cast Reflect and braced herself. Auron swung at the air, ejecting balls of darkness from his sword that homed in on Beatrix. She barely dodged the first two and managed to strike the third one before it reached her. However, hidden behind it was a fourth projectile which caught her off guard. Her reflective barrier had no effect and the dark ball hit her right in the chest.

The impact knocked the air out of her and pushed her back towards the edge of the roof. Something was wrong. Beatrix felt weak again, weaker than before. She couldn’t lift her sword and the slightest breeze made her skin ache, but not only that. Her mind felt sluggish, her head ached and her vision was blurry.

Then, Kefka flew past, closely followed by the dragon. The beast shot a ball of fire at the jester, who dodged. The fireball struck the keep, melting stone and sending shockwaves through the structure. Dazed as she was, Beatrix couldn’t hold her balance and fell off the edge.

She opened her eyes. She must’ve passed out, but she didn’t know if she had been gone for a minute or an hour. She scrambled onto her feet and picked up her sword. The effects of Auron’s attack still lingered, though she only felt slightly worn out and dizzy. She pondered her battle plan. It seemed like she couldn’t afford to get hit by this man at all. In a battle of attrition his strange abilities would give him the edge.

Beatrix decided that one decisive blow would be her ticket to victory when Kefka pranced around a corner and spotted her.  
“If it isn’t Beatrix! You look a little worse for wear, my dear”, he giggled, and invaded her personal space. Ordinarily she would’ve pushed him away, but something else weighed heavier on her mind.  
“What about the girl with the dragon?”  
“Oh, she’s busy”, he said dryly. At that moment, she flew past. An odd light was chasing her. It periodically dropped balls of energy that exploded upon impact. The bombs tore the floating platforms apart, but the snake-like dragon managed to dodge them well.

Kefka was doing that. Beatrix reevaluated her opinion of the fool. She would be wise not to underestimate him. He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers in the general direction of the girl. Triangles of magical energy appeared all around her and closed in. The dragon couldn’t shield her from them, and she got knocked off of its shoulder.

The fool screeched with sadistic delight.  
“If you’ll excuse me”, he said, hopping towards the edge of the platform, “I’ve got a hot date”, he exclaimed and jumped off the platform while striking a silly pose. Beatrix straightened her back and started scaling the keep. She still had a duel to win.

“You’re hardier than you look”, Auron said when she reached the roof.  
“And your skills are fearsome. However, this ends now!”, Beatrix said and charged. The man in red braced himself with a smile on his face. Maybe this woman wasn’t all that if she thought she could take him down with a head on assault. She leapt into the air and homed in on him with a mighty overhead swing. Steel met steel, and Auron stood his ground, but then he noticed the smirk on Beatrix’s face. Lightning struck him in the next instant, blowing his guard wide open. Beatrix was about to strike again and he tried to raise his sword, but his arm was paralyzed. He could only look on as she delivered what looked like one, graceful swing of her sword. What it felt like was a myriad of blades cutting him all over. Whether it was magic or many swings too fast for the human eye to see he didn’t know. He only knew that that was the end of the line. Auron fell onto his knees, covered in cuts and his clothes torn to pieces. He breathed laboriously when cold steel touched his neck.  
“I win”, Beatrix said calmly. He gritted his teeth.  
“It’s not over yet!”, he snarled. He swung his sword limply at her. Beatrix deflected the swing easily, tearing the blade from his grasp.  
“I have… to protect the summoner”, Auron mumbled before collapsing.

Protect the summoner? Why did that ring a bell? Beatrix looked around for the other two combatants. She saw the green girl without her dragon, skulking around in the shadows of a distant tower. She seemed injured.

Beatrix left Auron and made her way towards her. The girl saw her coming and looked around frantically, looking for an escape route no doubt. She was just about to leap off of the platform when Kefka shot up from below. The girl shrieked in surprise, the clown turned around and something burst forth from his back. It hit the girl and smashed her into the tower behind her. She collapsed, and Kefka’s grating cackling reached Beatrix’s ears.

Something wasn’t right. The summoner suffering at the hands of a clown… no, two clowns… what? Beatrix paused. This seemed familiar. Something like this had happened before! Beatrix’s heart raced. When she closed her eyes she felt like she could almost reach out and touch the face of… who? It was so close! Orange and white flashed before her inner eye. Whatever these memories were, the green girl seemed to be the key. Kefka couldn’t have her! After all, something else had become clear to Beatrix: clowns were the enemy!

Kefka did a little dance next to the collapsed girl and giggled maniacally.  
“Such terrible power. Teeheehee, you’ll make an absolutely delightful weapon when I’m done with you, deary!”  
“No!”, Beatrix shouted. She came down with a giant swing that the fool dodged by a mere hair’s width. The lightning strike that followed the swing made him jump.  
“Hey hey hey, what is th-”, Kefka cried, until Beatrix’s blade almost slit his neck. If she knew anything about fighting magic users, it was that getting close and putting them under pressure was the safest bet. Kefka managed to squirm out of the way of her cuts somehow. Even if he lacked the grace, he was remarkably quick.

Beatrix paused once she had created some distance between him and the summoner.  
“What are you doing?”, Kefka asked dryly. Beatrix didn’t answer. “Look, missy, I don’t like it when people try to deprive me of my toys, so beat it before I beat you!”, he screeched. Beatrix brushed her hair from her face calmly.  
“Then you’ll have to learn to deal with it because you can’t have her”.

Kefka stomped his foot and pointed at her with an odd gesture. However, before he let his magic run wild, Beatrix had already closed the distance between them. Kefka shrieked when innumerable cuts tore through his clothes and scratched his precious skin. He screamed with primal fury and glared at her.  
“How dare you, you maggot! This isn’t over yet, just you wait!”, he screamed and disappeared.

Beatrix only lowered her guard when she felt certain that the air was clear. Then she turned on her heel and hurried to the summoner’s side. The girl was barely conscious, but tried to squirm away when she noticed Beatrix’s approach. Beatrix felt sorry for the girl. Kefka had really roughened her up. She knelt down next to her and began casting curative magic. The girl inhaled deeply as cuts and bruises closed and warmth washed over her. She blinked a few times in disbelief.  
“W-why did you help me?”, she asked softly.  
“I’m… not sure. But I think you might be able to help me remember who and what I am”, Beatrix said sincerely. Silence fell between them for a while. The girl inspected her skeptically, but eventually her expression softened.  
“Thank you. I’m Rydia”  
“My name is Beatrix”, she said and pulled Rydia onto her feet.

Rydia’s expression suddenly turned anxious.  
“What about Auron?”  
“Oh. He wasn’t dead when I left him, but I did quite the number on him”, Beatrix admitted meekly.  
“But you can heal him, right?. Beatrix nodded. Rydia began casting some sort of spell, and at first nothing happened. Then, swathes of mist engulfed them and the hulking form of a dragon, another one than before, appeared before them. Rydia climbed onto it and invited Beatrix to do the same. The mist dragon quickly carried them to Auron and Beatrix set about healing his injuries.


End file.
